Repair roads, bridges before restoring commuter trains from Allentown to New York

Recently, Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter wrote favorably on a topic of interest to Lehigh Valley citizens: restoring passenger rail service to and from this area and New York City. Carpenter's support, I submit, is misguided, and contrary to sound fiscal policy.

A look back at recent studies of the cost of extending the current terminus of passenger rail service from High Bridge, N.J., to Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton confirms ridership cannot justify spending up to $1 billion to accommodate less than 1,000 in daily riders.

And time savings would not attract enough commuters to surrender the convenience of their motor vehicles for high-speed passenger rail service to New York City, according to a Central New Jersey Raritan Valley Transit study from March 2010: from Allentown, 155 minutes at a cost of $14.50 per ticket; Bethlehem, 144 minutes, $14; and Easton, 128 minutes, $13.50.

Another study, commissioned by Lehigh County, Northampton County and the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. at a cost of $250,000, focused on restoring passenger rail service between the Lehigh Valley and New York City a half-century after the last train pulled into the Allentown station. A headline in the April 20, 2010, Morning Call offered this sobering assessment about the study's conclusion: "Cost for Train to NYC? Try $1 Billion."

And the prospects are even more daunting in light of the position of New Jersey's rail agency. NJ Transit has no plans to extend a line west to Phillipsburg that would provide a link to Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton and is thinking about raising fares and cutting back service, said the Lehigh Valley's chief transportation planner, Joseph Gurinko.

Trains to New York, though popular in the public imagination, would cost nearly $15 million per year to operate, only 22 percent of which would be covered by passenger fares, according to the study by Systra Consulting of Little Falls, N.J., which was commissioned by the two counties and LVEDC.

Some of the study highlights are costs to restore passenger rail service between Lehigh Valley and New York City, $659 million; building required lines between Phillipsburg and High Bridge, N.J., $400 million; Allentown to New York City services could not begin until 2030; daily ridership would be only 800 round trips; annual service cost would be $15 million, with annual rider revenue of just $3.3 million. (Think: annual taxpayer subsidy of $12 million.)

The chilling SYSTRA study statistics understandably cast an immediate pall over this project. The pall remains. There has been virtually no public comment since the study was released nearly three years ago.

A final, yet important, hurdle to any effort to restore passenger rail service between the Lehigh Valley and New York City: sharing use of Norfolk Southern rail lines.

Finally, there is no likelihood that either state or federal funding will surface to jump-start proposals to restore passenger rail service to the Lehigh Valley or to other locations — Quakertown or the Poconos.

So what do we do? We should continue to speak out on the point for which there is almost universal agreement: Pennsylvania and the nation have a transportation crisis that must be fixed, starting yesterday. We seek your involvement and support.

Consistent with the Route 22 Coalition focus, the next two years will see more than $300 million in Lehigh Valley big-ticket highway construction projects: